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Tyaag (1977)

This Sharmila Tagore home production took years to make and it shows, mostly in Rajesh Khanna’s hair. But it’s sort of fitting, actually, because the story itself takes place over years—as do all of the Sharmila-Rajesh movies, with lots and lots of suffering and noble sacrificing principles (tyaag!) along the way. This is full of all that, but still I enjoyed it: sometimes angst is not misplaced and human frailties can cause a lot of trouble. I will say that the subtitles leave a lot to be desired—they are patchy in places (long dialogues with short or no subs) and hard to read at best. My friend Suhan did her best to fill in the gaps but even so a lot of the dialogue went over my head, making the film much less meaningful for me I think than it might otherwise have been. The music by SD Burman (his last soundtrack) is also very pretty indeed (my favorite is the duet “Hum Tum Hain Tum Hum”).

Our story begins in the Central Jail, where a prisoner (Raza Murad) being hanged in the morning is desperately bewailing his fate. It’s a pretty grim start!

His fears are soothed somewhat by another inmate named Chetan (Rajesh Khanna) who tells him that he is not dying, but starting a new life elsewhere in a body free from sin. Very Indian philosophy! and possibly not very comforting to everyone (i.e. ME), but it works for this prisoner.

Chetan has served a long sentence for murder, and is about to be released early for good behavior. The Jailor (Murad) is curious how such an obviously empathetic and honest man as Chetan has proved to be could be a murderer as well, and he asks Chetan to explain; Chetan refuses gently.

Credits roll, and we now meet Chetan and the lovely Sunita years earlier. They are a beautiful, beautiful pair. For some reason which I have been unable to fathom, I really prefer Sharmila when she’s opposite Rajesh than in any other jodi—even (or maybe especially) Shammi.

I think it might be because she stands up for herself against his sanctimonious preaching (yay Sharmila!) (although it leads to much misery of course). I prefer Rajesh himself with Mumtaz, because he isn’t nearly as preachy in his films with her and seems to have a lot more fun (yay Rajesh! and of course Mumtaz!). Anyway. These two are still beautiful together.

Chetan is a penniless poet while Sunita is the daughter of a wealthy man (Kamal Kapoor). Chetan’s close friend Bansi (Gurnam Singh, Rajesh Khanna’s real-life secretary) thinks Chetan should use his education to get a job to keep the creditors from his door, but Chetan clings stubbornly to his “art”—with Sunita’s full support.

But Sunita’s father is ready to get her married off to a man he has chosen named Gopal (Dheeraj Kumar), a doctor from a “good” family. Gopal and his mother (Sulochana Latkar) attend Sunita’s birthday party, as does Chetan when she invites him. At the party her father is rude to Chetan and then announces her engagement to Gopal—she swallows her anger in order to maintain a good front before the guests, but later goes in search of Chetan at his home.

This is a really pivotal scene, beginning as it does the downward spiral into misery, but is very poorly subtitled. There is a lot of nuance that I miss, although I understand at least that it is very DDLJ-like for a bit: Sunita wants to elope, and Chetan refuses. He wants to go to her father and ask for his blessings but Sunita—who likely understands her father better than he does—knows he won’t give them.

The primary reason that I don’t care much for DDLJ is that Kajol’s character is nothing but a pawn in the power play between and at the hands of the men in her life, although at least here Chetan promises that if her father refuses to give his permission they will get married anyway. Sunita clearly doesn’t believe that this will work out well (she gives the impression that she fears her father may hurt or kill Chetan) and she pleads with him. Chetan is steadfast in his refusal. He points out that society will disapprove and she might regret it someday and furthermore:

Sunita’s response to this patronizing nonsense is—thank goodness!—to call him out on what’s really going on.

She points out that if she is willing to give up her family, her wealth, her reputation—everything—for the sake of their love then why isn’t he? Chetan remains obdurate though, and when she realizes that he won’t budge she is hurt and furious. Yay Sunita! She accuses him (accurately) of selfishness and hopefully some other stuff (cowardice? ego?) which isn’t translated, sadly. Realizing finally that his values are more important to him than she is, she storms out.

At this point I am cheering her on, although the beauty of this film (and Rajesh’s performance) is that I do feel very sorry for him—I know that he thinks his “sacrifice” is the right thing even though—like her—I don’t agree. I feel strongly that he owes it to her to understand that she knows her father well and if she is ready to take such a drastic step it must be with good reason. His lack of trust in her judgement bothers me enormously. I wouldn’t want to spend my life with someone who thought so little of me and my ability to make the right choices.

I understand that I am supposed to view Chetan as a god-like type who is the warp and weft of the fabric of society; but life is to be lived, and lived happily! Is a culture which restricts people (and it’s always women in particular) from governing their own happiness worth holding together? I just don’t think so, and misplaced loyalties to it are really *eye-roll* inducing for me.

So when Sunita marries Gopal I am not as sad as I am supposed to be either. He is quite handsome and seems smitten with her—and as Suhan points out, Indian women are very adaptable (they have to be!). She seems content enough with her lot.

But.

She can’t leave well enough alone, and feels compelled one day soon into their marriage to tell him about her past.

Argggh Sunita, why?! I suppose I could analyze this as a subconscious wish to sabotage her marriage or punish herself for losing Chetan, but honestly it’s just STUPID. Gopal does not take it as well as he might either, and so loses my support now too. He goes off to England for years to further his medical studies, abandoning Sunita to bring up their son Munna (Master Tito) and take care of his mother.

Chetan meanwhile channels his despair into writing and becomes critically renowned and popular; one of his biggest fans is Sunita’s mother-in-law. His greatest work is a novel called Tyaag—the story of his romance with Sunita, although nobody knows it.

Sunita still harbors a deep anger (and grief) over their relationship, although finally the rift with her husband at least seems to be on the mend. I guess her continued fidelity and stellar abilities as a mother and daughter-in-law have endeared her to him again and he plans to return home soon, to Sunita’s joyful anticipation.

Little Munna is impatient (and also, the brattiest child ever seen on the face of the earth). He runs away from home to look for his long-missing father and of course meets—and bonds with—Chetan himself, who brings him home not knowing that the unforgiving Sunita is Munna’s (inept) mother.

We are now flogged with what seems like hours of Munna tantrums as the spoiled little monster refuses to let Chetan leave and get on with his life and the adults indulge him senselessly. Seriously, if he were mine I would put him in a permanent timeout in a dungeon somewhere. Poor Sunita is forced to struggle with her not-quite-put-aside love for Chetan, as he is with his feelings for her.

And all the trauma-drama-o-rama is not over, not by any means. Will Sunita ever forgive Chetan and understand his sacrifices (*cough*)? What will happen when her husband comes home? How will this triangle resolve itself? Will Chetan ever find happiness outside of his angsty books? Whom did he murder, and why? And please for the love of god will someone give Munna the spanking he really, really needs?

I must say that it is pretty entertaining stuff, even if I disagree wholeheartedly with the entire premise: it is well-done, and probably I would have found more to like if I’d understood the dialogues better. My sense was that the arguments for and against Chetan’s philosophy were more balanced than I could give full credit to, although in the end we are still supposed to be on board the Noble Sacrifice For The Sake Of Societal Norms Train with him. That will never happen, but at least my view of things was represented seriously. Plus, I enjoyed hating Munna and looking at pretty Rajesh and Sharmila and the nice song picturizations and generally ranting to poor Suhan watching online with me. Soap operas can be fun too. And Tun Tun is in it!

Suhan has generously uploaded Tyaag in two parts, here and here. It’s very hard to find and I guess sank without a trace when it was finally released (the producer was Sharmila’s secretary NS Kabir). Another obscurity surfaces (thank you Suhan)! If you are in the mood for intensely melodramatic romance and can tolerate the kid and the message (and the poor subs, if you need them), you could do worse.

80 Comments to “Tyaag (1977)”

You really have a flair for picking movies that I would have never heard of and which stars famous actors.

BTW, I prefer the pairing of Dharmendra and Sharmila Tagore due to the sheer fact that they have acted in all genres of movies – Comedy (Chupke Chupke), Social (Anupama, Satyakaam), Action (Yakeen), Love story (Mere Humdum Mere Dost) and Drama (Ek Mahal Ho Sapno Ka).

This sounds surprisingly good to me, better than another film about noble suffering and sacrifice, Amar Prem, starring the same pair. I can’t really get into Rajesh Khanna but I love Sharmila enough to make up for it.

Once again a movie, I’v enever ehar dof. But it sounds to have a good sort of storyline, so much typical of Rajesh-Sharmila movies.
This Sunita seems to be a gutsy sort of heroine, reminds me a bit of Paro. The whole story is a bit like Devdas except for the drinking and Chandramukhi and the old husband.
I agree completely with you on DDLJ and Kajol’s role in it.

Memsaab – Remarkable as always especially given the handicaps you struggled with i.e., infuriating subtitles, and more importantly, an inexplicable aversion to the melodramatic weepies in favor of your Dara Singhs :-) But you must agree that no one can quite break your heart as Rajesh can when he’s being all noble and suffering and singing!

Incidentally, on the issue of Sharmila and her confessions to her husband, the bad subs are to blame for how you perceived it. She told him about her prior relationship because he teased and badgered her about it thinking he was being cute. She was his prize, this beautiful woman, he’d won her but he was thrilled to think that there may have been others coveting her beauty. Unreasonably, however, though he said he was broad-minded and wanted her to tell him the truth if she’d had any previous relationship, given ye olde screwed-up Indian male mindsets, he probably thought that she had been much admired but that in true ‘sati savitri’ Indian woman fashion had been too chaste to reciprocate! And he really did keep on at her about “I can’t abide lies, please let me know the truth, truth is the foundation of a good marriage, blah blah” and despite her obvious discomfort during that scene, she takes him at his word, says it like it is and voila, the denouement as you have it! I want to point out though that when the subs have her claiming, “Somebody else was with me before our wedding”, she did not mean in the Biblical sense. Rajesh was too high-minded for that wouldn’t you know :-) though her husband obviously thought otherwise.

I loved the other cameos of all the old favorites as usual—Tun Tun, Asit Sen, Gurnam, Mukri. And Prem Chopra! And the Bindu dance. It had, also, as you say a very melodious soundtrack, unfortunately underrated because the film didn’t run. I loved “Hum Tum” though “Mann Pukare” may well be my favorite.

You make an interesting point about the X factor in the Sharmila-Rajesh pairing. I came across this little snippet from the early 70s called “Immortal Lovers”. Love that breathlessness of those old Hindi film mags :-)

“She was there, years before him at the top of the ladder of success – famous, alluring, knowing, lonesome. Her screen fellow-travellers were many, gay rebels, serene babus – yet on the screen she looked alone, expectant. And then he came along – new yet knowing, confident, demanding, and they met and fell in step with each other to make a memorable box-office pair. And he may yet meet many, and she may fall apart or meet a dead end. Profession, tensions, rivalry, necessity may cut them apart. But they are almost an immortal pair. And years later a generation that grows up, will chuckle and say that there may be many before and after but when I was young, and sixteen, Rajesh and Sharmila were together. Love is immortal. (Amar Prem)”

Well, long is good!!! And you can get me to watch melodramatic weepies that nobody else could :P Thanks for explaining that confessional scene in more detail—the subs did not even come close! :) I still think Gopal is a jerk for leaving her (well, even more so now).

And yes—the character actors as usual really brighten the whole thing up. I just LOVE THESE PEOPLE! And as you said early on—Prem Chopra didn’t even chew up the scenery (much).

One of the reasons that Sharmila isn’t a ‘must watch’ actress for me even though I think she’s really beautiful and a great actress is that she very often seems cold and aloof to me. But Rajesh somehow manages to warm her up—even if it’s only by dint of pissing her off :D I like them together a lot although I wish they’d made some happier films. That blurb you quoted is hilariously OTT, thanks for sharing it!

I remember cheering for Sharmila during the lets-elope scene. It’s not often that a Hindi film heroine gets to tell-off the purer-than-Ram Hindi film hero and that too in such refreshingly, blunt and honest terms.

I don’t much care for Sharmila (far too coy for my tolerance), but she shares a fairly intense and believable chemistry with Rajesh that add an “adult” demension and tension to the movie. Tyaag isn’t a particularly good movie, but it has some interesting things to say even if I don’t agree with the final message.

Ha! I see we agree completely. That’s why I devoted much of the review to that scene: it made the whole film, IMHO…[*minor spoiler* and made the ending when she sort of turned the tables on him more dimensional and interesting as well *end minor spoiler*].

And thank you for adding so eruditely to what I feel about the Rajesh Sharmila pairing: they are grownups, you are so right. And this feels like a grownup movie, for all its flaws :)

Hmm, how do you keep coming up with these entertaining reviews, Greta? I really enjoyed the review – am not sure I would quite enjoy the preachiness and “tyaag” side of the movie though. But then you expect that from Rajesh-Sharmila.

If you want fun, you watch Rajesh-Mumu. If you want melodrama, tears, might-have-been situations, you watch Rajesh-Sharmila. I can see a movie with Rajesh-Sharmila just once. And would probably like it that one time. But just once. I can see a Rajesh-Mumu movie again and again (and have!). I have seen Apna Desh and Dushman many times. :-)
I even prefer Rajesh-Asha but then Asha is Asha. :-)

I also sometimes find Sharmila distant though she can be sparkling on occasion. When she is having fun. Like in “vaada karo nahin chhodoge mera saath” in Aa Gale Lag Ja (one of my fav Sharmila songs).

Maybe it is just the roles she got coming her way after Aradhana.

And yes, Dharam-Sharmila movies were pretty good. But they were 1960s movies and Dharam played a lot of excellent, sensitive roles in that decade. Hema came into his life and corrupted him. ;-)

Rajesh-Mumu is my favorite Rajesh pair, for sure, although I do enjoy the trauma of Rajesh-Sharmila—I shamelessly love Daag, eg. :) And I like HER better with him than anyone else, even Dharam although nobody suffers opposite him!

And you can’t blame Hema for 1970s Dharam! He is awesome in the 70s anyway, but the films were just the films made then, not her fault :D

Rajesh-Mumu is my favorite pairing for Rajesh too. Mumu really does bring out the best in him. With Dharam, I’ve liked him with Sharmila–it’s probably the movies rather than any special chemistry except perhaps for Chupke Chupke. Dharam seems to have had good chemistry with lots of heroines –he does the same moves with Zeenat that he does with Hema. If I were Hema, I would’ve been jealous.

People complain about RK’s hair, I complain about Sharmila’s hair in the 70s.

I think it might be because she(Sharmila] stands up for herself against his sanctimonious preaching (yay Sharmila!) (although it leads to much misery of course).

Memsaab, have you seen Milan. Poor poor Sharmila–the movie ends with her becoming a ggod god fearing, husband worhipping girl. Yuck yuck and yuck. I only liked Sharmila-Rajesh in Amar Prem and Safar. The Bengali directors were able to transmute Rajesh’s superstar ego to charisma and of course both movies have fabulous soundtracks.

I only know the Sunil Dutt-Nutan Milan, which I have mixed feelings about. And I don’t much care for Amar Prem or the last half of Safar, although there are things about both films that I DO like too. Music in Rajesh’s films are always good! It’s one of his hallmarks.

It is no accusation. I think my words are quite polite – pls note i said i think and will get back. Films are all the time being remade into different languages in India. Perhaps you are reading my comment negatively.

trauma-drama-o-rama hehe.. not my favorite genre. But this does sound a bit safar-ish which I liked in parts (early ones). I like the delicious irony of a man who gives up his girlfriend because of his terminal illness and then has to see her turned into a widow before he dies.

Aradhna is the only one I like till the end, because the ‘suffering’ there is interspersed with so much fun.

“Aradhna is the only one I like till the end, because the ‘suffering’ there is interspersed with so much fun.”

And so many lovely songs! And the Farida Jalal-moustached Rajesh Khanna romance! :-) I won’t go so far as to say I love that film, but at least it’s fairly entertaining. Tyaag (generally; I don’t mean the film) gets on my nerves when it doesn’t help anyone.

You do know that Rajesh & Sharmila were also great friends off camera. And often made Mumtaz and Raakhee miserable, both of whom they considered gauche and unsophisticated compared to themselves. As gleaned from Stardust gossip in childhood. :)

This is from Mumtaz herself about her rivalry with La Tagore in being the #1 pair with the Superstar:

The best line: “He felt lost when I quit films”!

Cut/paste:

Her rivalry with Sharmila was the most talked about…

“The difference between us was that Sharmila gave flops with Rajesh Khanna while I gave none! I was always secure with Rajesh Khanna. Nobody could replace me. Though Sharmila did give a couple of hits with him, it didn’t really bother me. No actress, not even Sharmila could threaten me. When I gave up films, Rajesh and I were the topmost pair. He felt very lost when I quit films.”

more cut/paste on Mamu friendship with Rajesh Khanna…they were neighbors!:

What was her association with the superstar like?

“Just because you do a lot of films together, and vibe well, that doesn’t mean you are having an affair,” exclaims Mumtaz. “I am sure Juhi and Shah Rukh have nothing to do with each other but there are rumours of an involvement, which I don’t think are true. Similarly, my friendship with Rajesh Khanna was also misunderstood. He was my neighbour and we got along very well. I would pull his leg and tease him about his fan following. Whenever Rajesh entered a hotel in Madras, there was a queue of 600 girls waiting to see him at midnight! As a result, even I would get some importance, as people would ask for my autograph as well,” laughs Mumtaz.

Isn’t that a modest statement considering she was no less of a superstar at the time?

“I was no patch on Rajesh Khanna. He was a phenomenon and I was like her chamchi,” giggles Mumtaz. “I teased him a lot and he always called me moti, as I was generally on the plump side. I attended his weeding too. After his marriage, I got married. At that time, I was doing Aap ki Kasam, Roti and Prem Kahani. I completed these films and then got married. I didn’t leave any of my producers in lurch.”

Sharmila came from the “Tagore” khandaan – and married into Nawabi royalty. If you listen to her interviews (you can find them on youtube), you can “feel” the sophistication.

Mumtaz came up the really hard way – working her way up from an extra, a dance-role here, a supporting role there, B-movie heroine for years. And she still made it to the top – and quit the industry when on top.

Very different backgrounds. And if it is true that Rajesh-Sharmila
made Mumtaz miserable because they considered her “gauche” and “unsophisticated”, it says more about their pettiness than about Mumu.

Personally, if I had one hour to talk to either Sharmila or Mumtaz, I would definitely prefer Mumtaz.

I don’t have a problem with “sophisticated” people – but I do have a problem with “snooty” people. Those who look down on others.

But maybe this was all in jest and Rajesh-Sharmila were only pulling Mumtaz’ leg for her lack of sophistication. In which case, of course, it is all fine – just fun. :-)

I remember reading that in a Stardust too (although I don’t believe everything I read there, lol!)…but Rajesh and Mumtaz in the Bombay Superstar documentary seem to get on very well, and I think they couldn’t have had the sparkling chemistry they do onscreen if they didn’t. And none other than Dimple Kapadia has been quoted as saying that Rajesh should have married Mumtaz instead of her :) Hopefully it was all in the spirit of fun if there was teasing, as Raja says. Thanks Suhan and Radzi for the links and quotes!

Sharmila’s sophistication is one of the things I think that puts me off her a bit. Being a girl from the sticks myself, I relate more to the Mumus of the world :D

In 1996 she got the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement award and Shahrukh gave an amazing speech on mumtaz. If I remember rightly Rajesh Khanna handed the trophy to her with an affectionate speech. I am sure it is on youtube, but alas cant hunt for it as youtube is banned in my office.

Sharmila having such an attitude is understandable, she would be considered somewhat sophisticated, if dull in India (I have met her several times in social settings.) But Rajesh Khanna? Rajesh Khanna sophisticated?

But it is not the same thing. Yes he was a spoilt brat and that carried over to his adult life. Other trivia: Rajesh Khanna and Jeetendra came from the same area of Bombay–they were school mates in fact. I like Jeetu a whole lot better these days. I’m through with my RK phase.

Thanks for that link Heyman. We should be careful in judging people personally (it’s one thing to judge acting-dancing-singing skills, quite another to make judgments on who they are as people) without the benefit of actual acquaintance :)

Man Pukare and Hum Tum….these are the two songs that come to my mind when i hear about this movie…havent seen it…Liked the review..Thanks Memsaab ji…Thanks Suhan for your “Memsaab alert” on Rajesh Khanna Forum…. :)

Tyaag is one greatest movie of all times and it has a very good story line. Super Star Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila were declared a hit pair and they went on to give many more super duper films like Aradhana, Safar, Amar Prem, Raja Rani, Daag, Tyaag and the artistically acclaimed Aavishkar. Film after film swept the box-office. But there was more to him than just his mannerisms as he built the image of a vulnerable, gentle romantic which no actors has and will be having.

“Tragedy is not when actors cry. Tragedy is when audiences cry.”which super star rajesh khanna created the history in indian film industry.

Radzi, one of my favorite songs is “dakiya daak waala”. The first time I heard it, I couldn’t stop listening to it for months. It’s not just Kishore, it’s the whole village scene, the choreography and Rajesh Khanna who brings the whole thing to life with his effervescence. But this is a review for Tyaag so enough said about that. I saw Memsaab’s top 10 RK songs list and wanting to nominate this.

Love this film!!! I really think Saif would have been awesome in this film – guess I’ll have to do with Rajesh Khanna – but wasn’t he alot younger than Sharmila?? Anyways, please review another film soon!!!!